LWDW 365: 3D Pi powered headphones and Arc in the kernel

Linux Kernel 6.2 adds support for Intel Arc GPUs! 3D Pi powered headphones, Itanium support could return to Linux, and WTF is a Lap Dock?

Listen:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:44 SCALE 2023
03:45 Jitsi server fun
05:20 OBS breaking Jack
08:05 Sunday office stream
09:12 Linux 6.2 is the MAC
14:16 Rescuing Itanium Linux support
17:34: WTF is Lapdock?
31:04 Ploopy 3D printed headphones

Colour key: Venn Jill

Linux Kernel 6.2

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/02/linux-kernel-6-2-new-features

Linux 6.2 adds cpufreq to M1s, devicetree for newer hardware, HDMI out to Mac Studio (2022) and bluetooth support.
6.2 lands support for the odroid M1 too (no relation, but also ARM).
Intel Arc graphics enabled out of the box.
Linus Torvalds released the Linux Kernel 6.2 last Sunday with lots of major new hardware updates, performance enhancements and improvements.
And Linus urged developers and users to test the new cut of the kernel saying:
- “Maybe it’s not a sexy LTS release like 6.1 ended up being, but all those regular pedestrian kernels want some test love too.”
And with this release, the Linux Kernel now features native support for Intel’s Arc GPUs.
Major Nouveau driver update, which includes much better performance for GeForce RTX 2000 series and newer GPUs.
Support for PS5’s DualSense Edge Controller, and for PS4’s DualShock 4 controller.
Linux Kernel 6.2 now features the ‘accel’ compute accelerator subsystem that is intended for use by AI accelerators.
- Accel is a framework of device drivers for compute acceleration devices to be used for Machine-Learning, Deep-Learning, and other similar use cases.
Linux 6.2 is the first version of the Linux kernel to offer mainline support for the Apple M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips as work done by Asahi Linux’s developers was upstreamed.

Saving the Itanic

https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2023/02/16/itanium_linux_kernel/

Linux kernel developers have debated removing support for Intel and HP’s now officially defunct Itanium/IA64 RISC platform from the project, which was discontinued 2 years ago.
Linus Torvalds said that “I’m not a fan of IA64 as an architecture, but it’s a bit sad to remove it entirely. It’s not like it’s been a huge maintenance burden in general.”
But a Physicist and Debian developer John Paul Adrian Glaubitz came to the rescue, and he posted:
- “I definitely have the time to look after the architecture as I am also maintaining it in Debian.”
- Glaubitz even admitted “I always have an Itanium server ready for testing kernels that I can power on and control remotely via its built-in management system.”
In 2008, Itanium was the fourth-most deployed microprocessor architecture for enterprise-class systems, behind x86-64, Power ISA, and SPARC.

WAT is the LapDock

https://puri.sm/posts/announcing-the-lapdock-kit/

https://puri.sm/products/lapdock-kit/

https://shop.puri.sm/shop/lapdock-kit/

Seriously, wat… is a lapdock?
It’s a handy way to turn your Librem 5 into a laptop?
The lapdock has no CPU, RAM or storage, instead, it uses the Librem 5 or Librem 5 USA as the computer.
Sporting a 13.3 inch 1920×1080 16:9 IPS touch screen so think of it as a big tablet.
Comes with a 44Wh battery and some speakers.
The kit is available for $339.
It’s a fancy dock, like you would use for extra ports on your laptop or Steam Deck, but also includes a monitor.
A device for those who were actually able to get a Librem 5 phone.
$339.00 is downright cheap compared to buying the required Librem 5 phone or the new Librem 5 USA phone, at $1,999.00!

Slice of Pi

Headphone Pi

https://www.hackster.io/news/open-source-ploopy-headphones-get-rp2040-dac-137c3eef9491

https://ploopy.co/product-category/headphones/

https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones

Want some Ploopy headphones?
That’s right, from the creator of Ploopy the Trackball comes 3D printed open-source headphones.
Ploopy offers an amplifier based on a Raspberry Pi RP2040, a Texas Instruments PCM3060 24-bit DAC, and an amplifier circuit.
The firmware is open-source as well.
Choose from DIY or prebuilt.
The Ploopy Headphones full kit can be pre-ordered for $149.99 CAD.
The Ploopy Headphones fully assembled can be pre-ordered for $299.99 CAD.